The economic realities of racism

Here in America, despite some progress, similar patterns of discrimination against African Americans still limit opportunities and increase frustrations, particularly among youth. Deeply entrenched discrimination, subjugation and racism continue to affect people of color in every state. While a third of African Americans have gained middle-class jobs and conditions, their level of inclusion does not placate clear evidence of active forms of discrimination in America’s employment, housing, credit markets and public accommodations.

What’s the difference in the treatment of youth here and there? Instead of going to jobs everyday, young people of color, in almost every state in the nation are on criminal justice systems’ dockets four to one over their white counterparts.

To mitigate such inequities and continue America’s status quo, white conservatives use middle-class Blacks in their employ as buffers to stymie the progress of the larger Black underclass. The white neoconservatives who control much of America’s political agenda are as oblivious to the problem as are the French.

Like their surrogate, Condoleezza Rice, they say that discrimination is no longer a major obstacle to minorities’ access to employment, education and other social mobility mechanisms. They say, accurately, that affirmative action has not benefited the poor who need it most but has primarily benefited middle class African Americans. Ironically, they use these same Rice-like Black beneficiaries to denounce affirmative action, welfare, multiculturalism and Black culture and lifestyles.

How different are the situations in France from America? Can what is happening there happen here?

The paramount issue there, as here, is economic oppression. Employment discrimination studies show that when racially mixed pairs of individuals apply for the same jobs and eight to one times the white is offered the job and an equally qualified African American partner was not.

Discrimination studies in America’s housing markets reveal Black testers experiencing some form of differential treatment half of the time. At least 25 percent of the time there will be discrimination in many important types of behavior by rental or real estate agents. A national housing audit shows that five to 10 percent of the time, African Blacks are excluded from, or simply not told about, housing units that are made available to whites.

Also, polls show that African Americans report high levels of discrimination when they shop. Twenty-one percent report unfair treatment in restaurants, bars or theaters. Another research study in which testers were used found African American males likely to be charged $1,000 more to purchase an automobile than their comparable white partners.

At least in France they aren’t alleging that “all is equal.” In America they serve up a few African Americans to buttress the trend toward a growing African American underclass. While immigrants of color have been cramming into France’s slums over the last 30 years, the period produced some strides toward equal pay for Blacks and whites in America. But this only applied to a precious few. Tremendous differences in pay still persist.

African Americans still do not have opportunities to receive income equal to whites. Black American families earned about $61 for every $100 earned by white families in 1970 on average – the ratio has only slightly improved. There is little evidence of employment parity between American whites and Blacks over the last 30 years.

Differences in income levels by family type are astounding: Black-to-white median income levels are much better for married couple families but significantly worse in single-parent families, which make up a greater proportion of African-American families. Such statistics underscore the chasm between non-white segments of the populations of France and America and staid political hierarchies intransigent and inept at responding to societal shifts in their countries.

Email William Reed at busxchng [at] his.com or visit http://www.BlackPressInternational.com.

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